Applications for Premio Henraux in white marble still open until March 15, 2018

Entries of yet unrealized ideas should make a topic out of Michelangelo’s first visit to the Monte Altissimo quarries 500 years ago

Applications for the IV. Henraux International Sculpture Award is still open until March 15, 2018. „The Foundation wants to attract and sustain young artists in the use of marble and in the drafting of works of intelligence, in which could be combined and renewed the ancient traditions of manufacture together with the new conceptual needs of the present creativity,“ according to the webpage.

Entries to the Award may come from Italian or international artists not older than 45. The final event will be held in July in the Henraux factory in Querceta, Lucca, where the selected artists will realize their not yet realized drafts.

In this year’s issue, the jury will give special attention to projects which refer to Michelangelo’s first climbing up to the Monte Altissimo 500 years ago. The great artist had undergone that trouble in order to find the best workable and most beautiful white marble for his projects. He stayed for a while in the Versilia region which today contains the provinces of Massa-Carrara and Lucca.

Also will be most appreciated works „which will be particularly related to the environment, to the territory and to the public“ highlighting that marble always was a material used for the design of community spaces creating symbols for identification.

In a pdf, artists are advised to draw their inspiration from the region, its history and the marble industry in Versilia.

The winners will be announced on April 30, 2018. The highlight for them will take place in the 6 weeks from May 30 to July 15, 2018, when they will realize there objects onsite in the Henraux factory in Querceta. The company will provide board and lodging, the raw stone block, also machinery plus the support by its craftsmen. Finishing by hand must be done by the artists, as said kindly.

Henraux is one of the old stone companies in Tuscany. The founder came as a soldier with Napoleons to Italy. During 200 years the company became famous for extending the limits of knowhow and technology in the quarry and in fabrication.

Around 1955, the foundation was born. The biennial prize had been awarded for the first time in 2012. It is dedicated to Henraux’ director Erminio Cidonio who had invited artists like Henry Moore, Hans Jean Arp, Joan Miró or Isamu Noguchi, just to name a few, to come to Querceta to work with his white marble. Many of their pieces are now an show in the Henraux Museum.